TORONTO (djc features) – When an art form becomes the darling of a generation, the impact ripples worldwide. There is no better place to see how documentaries have rocketed into mainstream appeal than in the Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto.
The 2004 festival saw a 300 per cent increase in advance ticket sales, and more than 40,000 viewers attended the screenings that dotted the downtown cinemas. The numbers help support the anecdotal evidence – this year’s Hot Docs showcased some of the most controversial, emotional and original documentaries to ever grace Toronto screens.
The buzz was electric over Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me, where the fit filmmaker ate McDonald’s McFood for 30 days to prove the deadly consequences within burgrs and fries. The footage turned gruesome even on the third day – when Spurlock vomited after his first super-sized meal – but the appeal didn’t rest just on the voluntary artery-clogging (Spurlock gained 17 pounds in that month); fans of Michael Moore will appreciate Spurlock’s trek across the U.S. as he digests the controversy surrounding fast-food’s deep pockets and obesity’s growing epidemic.
Another well-publicized film centred on Scrabble enthusiasts and their quest for the $25,000 world championship. Word Wars offered audiences a glimpse into the myriad characters that comprise a lifelong obsession with a board game – from pot-smoking Marlon to Zen-practicing Joe Edley, the humanity within the competition elevated this film past a voyeuristic journey.
Apart from this lighter fare, Hot Docs’ strength rested on the political dramas and military exposés. The highly-anticipated The Take, directed by activist couple Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein, entranced audiences during its world premiere. Following Argentinean workers hoping to control abandoned factories peppering the country, the bold doc featured tense scenes of what Lewis calls “protest porn” (tear gas, riot police, slingshots) and emotional moments of legal battles. The workers’ motto “Occupy, resist and produce” lingered long after the final credit.
The winner of Hot Docs’ Best Canadian Documentary had a bit of occupying and resisting throughout its 70 minutes, as Sara Goodman’s Army of One documented three U.S. Army recruits rising or quitting through the ranks. An unwavering portrayal of military life is nourishing both to the politically informed and the politically jaded.
Another film with a military theme focused instead on the media that relay the message to the public. War Feels Like War became a fly-on-the-wall for independent journalists covering the Iraq war, and the more astounding moments included scenes the mainstream media was too frightened to broadcast: Coalition forces shoving captives’ faces into dirt, bullet holes tearing apart civilian flesh. Frightening footage cloaked the film, but it remains a worth entry into the canon of war-era filmmaking.
Every year, Hot Docs presents a retrospective on a well-known filmmaking veteran, and this time around audiences were treated to the eclectic work of former CBC journalist Michael Maclear. A classic compendium such as Maclear: Foreign Correspondent highlights how journalism should be approached: A profile of a martial-arts director displayed probing questioning, while a travel essay on the island Nehru – where citizens are paid $32,000 annually to do nothing – hinted at themes of greed, clouded fantasy and apathetic egos.
Another Hot Docs trademark is its country focus, and this year Netherlands had the spotlight shone on its doc makers. To isolate one highlight, Sarah Vos’s Welcome to Holland explored a controversial refugee program that educated immigrants until they were 18, and then shipped them home. Although marred by mediocre sound, the doc succeeded in conveying the heart-rending struggle these young refugees underwent in order to find freedom, at any cost.
Something about one-word documentaries always convey a thoroughness of its subject: There was the marijuana op-ed film Grass and last year’s hit about spelling bees titled Spellbound. At Hot Docs, both Money and Thirst delved deep into their respective subjects – who controls world currency and the privatization of water supply. Money profiled Argentina and Turkey as countries that suffer from tragic economic policies – with the World Bank painted as the villain entering stage left – while Thirst excellently examined the public’s fight to wrestle water control away from private companies and multinationals. Cutting from Indian villages to American bureaucracy exemplified the universal war that is far from over.
Sold-out shows typified the average Hot Docs night although none was more anticipated than the closing night film, Control Room. Jehane Noujaim does a complete 180 from her prior release, the business-bust exposé Startup Dot Com, by detailing the undercurrents and policies surrounding Arab’s most popular news source, Aljazeera. This Arabic CNN has been attacked by the U.S. government for broadcasting lies, although this doc catches U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in an ironic quote: “We’re dealing with people [at Aljazeera] that are perfectly willing to lie to the world to attempt to further their case.” Beyond such foot-in-mouth moments, the film offers images even too horrific for the steeliest stomachs. Noujaim doesn’t pull any punches, which is a required tactic for a brave doc tackling a subject few North Americans bother to learn about.
Whether framed as investigative, voyeuristic, activist or political, this filmmaking form will continue to offer alternatives to cookie-cutter Hollywood films. How ubiquitous documentaries will be in the future remains to be seen, but if Hot Docs 2004 is any indication, the documentary will enjoy successful posterity.
